UPTON – At Thursday night’s town meeting, a majority of the 27 voters attending decided they didn’t want their taxes going up. Hence, the selectmen’s recommendation to spend $20,000 to pave 300 feet of the East B Hill Road was defeated, Town Clerk James Rector said Friday by phone.

Several people thought the price was too high.

“Waiting another year won’t hurt, and it might be well to let it settle a year,” he said of this year’s reconstruction work to repair rain and thawing damage.

That means the amount to be raised through taxation will be $124,000

Other than the paving article, voters approved the rest of the warrant, including a $91,490 school budget. Upton tuitions its students through SAD 44.

Voters reelected Rector to another one-year term, incumbent Upton School Committee Director John Aron to another three-year term, and chose newcomer Rodney Goodrum to fill a three-year selectman’s seat. Incumbent Roger Lavallee, who served the remaining year of a three-year term, opted not to run again.

Goodrum has no municipal experience, but he’s lived in Upton his whole life, Rector said.

About the only thing different than last year was the temperature, both inside and outside the old schoolhouse within which town meeting was held.

“It was 13 below zero outside, so everybody kept their coats on, and some people kept their gloves on all the time. We had the propane heater running for seven hours before the meeting, but it was still pretty chilly,” Rector said.